Six Promises
by Subservient Dreamer
Summary: Six drabbles based off the music shuffle song title challenge. All Tianzi/Li Xing-ke centric. "Being by your side is nothing but a privilege I choose willingly, and a gift you have given me, Tianzi. I promise."


1. Put your Winamp/i-Tunes/Windows Media Player on shuffle.

2. Click next for the first challenge.

3. Write a drabble of a pairing that suits the song title.

4. You can only write the drabble until the song ends. When the song stops and changes to next song, you must stop writing and write another drabble that suits the new song.

5. Do this for 6 songs, and good luck.

_Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass in any way, shape, or form._

_AN: To be honest, I wrote longer than some of the songs. I think you can tell which ones :P Also, I'm pretty rusty and not used to writing drabbles. Hope they're still enjoyable ~_

_**1. "Privilege"**_

Sometimes he heard whispers behind his back, as he walked beside her. Malicious whispers, giggling whispers, pitying whispers...it was easy for him to ignore them. He was used to ignoring whispers all his life.

_"Tch, look at that Xing-ke...trailing after her like a lost puppy after its master. Who does he think he is anyway, to take so much of the Empresses' time? Well, it's nothing more than he deserves, to have to heed her every whim, the lowly commoner he is."_

_"Did you see the look Xing-ke gave the Empress during the reception today? It was so full of passion...I hear they've even been sleeping in the same bed for __**years**__."_

_"Oh, you're bad! She's only thirteen!"_

_"Poor Xing-ke...he has to stay by her night and day. She's so young too, I can't imagine what it must be like to have to constantly watch over such a naive and sheltered child."_

But, he never realized that she heard them too, until a particular moment. Tianzi broke the peaceful silence that usually envelops the duo as he brushes her hair for the evening.

"Xing-ke..." Her voice, so delicate, so porcelain. He momentarily stops his ministrations, a little unnerved by the tears he could almost hear forming in the corners of her eyes. The fierce feeling of protection wells within his chest until he steadies himself, resumes running the comb through her wispy strands.

"Yes, Tianzi-sama?" She takes a shuddering breath.

"S-sometimes I hear things...whispers. The people of the court..." His hands remain steady, each brush stroke as sure but gentle as the last. But his heart beat out a furious, nervous rhythm. Tianzi can't stifle the breathy little yawn that escapes her and as she makes a show of stretching her arms, Xing-ke quietly asks her to continue.

"What sort of things do these whispers say?" Her posture slouches and for a moment Xing-ke feels a stab of regret - perhaps she didn't want to continue. Again, another little sigh.

"I don't want to believe them. But I hear them so much, so often." She slumps against him a bit, forcing him to began brushing the hair at the crown of her head. "Things like this...they say you don't want to do them. You're forcing yourself to, you don't really want to stay by me..a-are they true, Xing-ke?"

There's a part of Xing-ke that wanted to shout to her his devotion while he gathered her body in his arms (which fit so perfectly well) and buried his face into her sweet-smelling mass of hair...and then the other part which he listened to.

Without a word, he stops brushing (which elicits a little pouty exclamation from his young Empress), sets the comb down, and softly winds his arms about her small frame. He brings his right hand up to her chin, thumb and pinky out. His voice is warm and husky with emotion next to her ear.

"Being by your side is nothing but a privilege I choose willingly, and a gift you have given me, Tianzi. I promise."

_**"2. Loose Cannon"**_

In battle, he was a loose cannon. And that was all there was to it. He knew, outwardly, he seemed calm, cool, and collected. Utterly in control. But he was not.

Next to her, everything was assuaged. The beast that threatened to rip off his mask of normalcy was abated, subdued, subservient in her pure and untainted presence. He could never, ever live with himself should he find the beast merely playing dead, couldn't live with himself should it rear its ugly face in front of her. Next to her, he was his truest self

In battle, his blood rushed through his veins magma-hot; it was all he could hear. Old, invisible wounds opened themselves and the blood spread far and wide, obliterating everything in his path. In battle, he was a loose cannon.

Next to her, he found he could forget the bad memories that were just under the surface of everything - his brother, his mother. He hated them both. His brother for trying to "help" he and his mother, only leading to abandonment. His mother for breaking down, losing herself after she lost her eldest. Those feelings of hate were buried, but never lost, smoldering, smoldering within his heart. But next to her, they cooled, his soul cooled. Next to her he could live free. And for that, he could promise that his beast would stay hidden.

_**"3. Get It On! Doppleganger"**_

Xing-ke wasn't sure if he understood love. He _felt_ it, that much was for certain. But it was a concept utterly illogical to him. There was no way to strategize, no way to take control of anything. He was a little enlightened one day, when walking past Tianzi's room. The door had been left open a crack, and he could see her face, a pink blush so stark against her snow-hued skin.

"Kaguya...what do you do when you think you love someone?" Tianzi held a little porcelain cup, steam rising to intensify the stain of her cheeks. Kaguya's hearty laugh resounded through the chamber's walls.

"I dive right in, of course! Love is like..." Though he couldn't see her, Xing-ke almost smirked thinking of how Kaguya must have looked so deceptively innocent with her finger to her lips and her eyes rolled up towards the ceiling.

"Love is like war!" She finally declared, and Tianzi started.

"Eh?! Wh-what do you mean! How could it be anything like something so scary?" His Empress ducked her head down, staring at the murky depths of her tea.

"Like I said, you just have to DIVE RIGHT IN! Show them no quarter! That you mean business, and you won't take no for an answer! And..." Kaguya's voice took on a slightly shyer tone, "And it's easy to start loving someone, but it's very hard to stop. And it will be impossible to forget. They will forever be engraved on your heart."

Tianzi smiled, a smile that set her entire face aglow (and to Xing-ke, it was a field of snow under dawn's morning rays - beautiful and pure). She set her cup down and reached out to grasp her best friends' hands. "Thank you, Kaguya! Tomorrow...tomorrow, will you help me start my war against Xing-ke?"

He was half-dazed, walking away from his Tianzi's room, the excited chatter and squeals of two young girls' love-war strategies buzzing in one ear and out the other. _It seems I may understand bits of love after all, _he couldn't help thinking, on his way to conduct his own plans. _I will win this, Tianzi-sama. I promise._

_**"4. Map Of The Problematique"**_

Every time he went to battle, she shut herself in her room. She huddled in a ball underneath the blankets, her silver hair spread upon white pillows and sheets.

She never felt more alone than during these times. Fear clouded her vision (or was it the tears, those tears that just wouldn't stop pouring down her cheeks?), and panic gripped her heart (panic, love, loneliness - they all blended together until her head pounded). Flashes of his mangled, blood-stained body presented themselves to her half-awake dreams. Other bodies - no, corpses (she couldn't pretend to deny what she was seeing) were there in the daydreams too, but they all looked the same. Only he stood out - his normally passionate gaze dull and clouded over.

_Xing-ke._

To calm herself down, sometimes she tried imagining life without him. Tried imagining herself as a strong (and tall, always tall), unwavering Empress of the Federation, until a black cloud of silky hair always blew in unseen wind before her vision and the sobbing started all over again.

But at least, this far, he's always come back. And Gao Hai would come into her bedroom without knocking (which she always hated, but with Xing-ke and Gao Hai it was okay), pull the covers from her sweating body, and lift her out of bed. He would set her down by the vanity and hum a little song, all the while delicately wiping her face and bundling up her tresses into something more presentable. And she would walk out on her own, posture straight and eyes glittering (but not with tears, with unspoken love and welcome), and welcome him back as a true, poised Empress would. Because even if she wasn't, she knew that's what he deserved, because he promised he would take her from this place.

_**"5. Hedgehog's Dilemma"**_

You couldn't see them, but they were there. A fine, prickly layer of hedgehog quills. They had been there ever since she had been sold out by...everyone she had ever known. Except for him, of course. But it didn't stop a fragile young thirteen year old girl from keeping their distance anyway.

Sometimes, when he helped her down stairs, his hand encompassing her small one, she looked truly content. And then she would remember where she was, who she was, what had been done to her. And she would recoil even if only in the slightest, those invisible quills shooting outwards. And it tore his heart to shreds.

During a day in which political obligations had been taken care of, the two reclined upon cushions set on her bedchamber's balcony. The summer breeze was cool, blowing the steam of their tea away from their faces. She looked a bit melancholy, so Xing-ke took it upon himself to at the very least _try _to perk up her lips a bit, even if it meant he'd be denied and would feel the prickle of those quills again. He spied the way she set her pinky out while holding the little china cup and mimicked her actions.

She noticed, of course, and pursed her lips subtly. Was he making fun of her? Deciding to test her theory, she brought the cup to her lips. He did the same. He didn't even have to have her eyes directly on her to follow her movements exactly. Tianzi cup down, Xing-ke cup down. Tianzi hands folded in lap, Xing-ke hands folded in lap. Tianzi hair toss, Xing-ke hair toss.

Her red lips pouted more noticeably now, but she couldn't help a bark of laughter when he pouted exaggeratedly too. In a sudden rush of silken silvery hair and soft robes, she scooted over to him and clasped her hands about his waist.

"Xing-ke...you won't ever hurt me, will you?" He smiled, moving to hold her tiny waist in reciprocation.

"Never, my Tianzi. I promise." And the quills remained hidden.

_**6. "Only Happy When It Rains"**_

Tianzi had always been a peculiar child. While most little girls and boys hit the deck running when a downpour started, the seven-year old Tianzi, despite the many protests, loved dragging her robes about the public garden's mud. Eventually the eunuchs learned to just let her be.

She wasn't sure why herself she loved being outside during the rain. Maybe she liked watching her clothing, her "perfection", get soiled. Liked letting her hair loose, the feel of it sticking to her cheeks and chin. She thought she mostly like the fact she was...alone. The other children didn't like her very much, or either were too intimidated to invite her to play with them.

But...there was another reason, as well. There was someone else that liked the rain as much as she, someone she always followed as silently and stealthily as she could. His long, charcoal-colored hair swayed to his hips as he strolled so regally in front of her, feet barely making a sound as the stepped over the dewed grass. She wished she could walk like him. Wasn't she supposed to be able to, as an Empress?

She never got caught following him. Until now. Little Tianzi was fairly absorbed in watching her own slippered feet glide across the ground, so much so, that she didn't even notice the one she was pursuing had stopped. With a soft squeak, she bumps into him, slipping on the dew. Feline reflexes allow him to quickly catch and steady her before she falls. He wears a bemused grin as she blushes furiously, embarrassed at herself.

"Empress...why do you follow me every time it rains?"

She brings her clenched fists to her mouth, chewing on one of her knuckles. "Yoo'll waff at me," comes her mumbled response. To her dismay, he does laugh. "See..."

"No no, I won't, Empress. Cross my heart." Tianzi cocks her head at this, repeating the words "cross my heart". "It's...something you say when you want someone to know you are absolutely telling the truth." He made a motion of crossing his heart and flashes her a smile. His boyish grin is too disarming for even a young girl like her to resist, and she finds the words tumbling out of her mouth as she kicks at a clump of upturned dirt.

"I...like the way you walk. I think I should be able to walk like you, since I'm an Empress and all. But I can't! Sometimes I think you could teach me though..." Her face is twice as red now and she waits for the mocking laughter, but this time, nothing comes. He kneels down to her level and looks into her scarlet eyes, made especially vibrant from the rain's mist. He doesn't tell her that he wouldn't know the half of how to teach someone to "walk the way he did", but he nods anyway and is rewarded with a big, beaming grin.

"U-umm..." She continued through her knuckle, "What do _you _do out here in the rain, Xing-ke?" Xing-ke averts his eyes, but it just wasn't possible to deny his Empress anything, even an answer to a personal question.

"Now you're going to laugh at me..." Tianzi furiously shakes her head, inadvertently splattering them both with the raindrops her hair had absorbed. Xing-ke begins to chuckle, but stops short at the serious look on her face.

"My heart crosses!" She exclaims, and Xing-ke is defeated.

_**~ end ~**_

Bands:

1. Incubus

2: Killing Joke

3: Shiro Sagisu

4: Muse

5: Shiro Sagisu

6: Garbage


End file.
